My Grandma's Old Bench Gets a Little Makeover!
I’ve had this bench makeover on my to-do list for a long time, it holds a lot of significance for us as it sat by my grandma’s house for many many many years. When we visited her, not long before her passing, we would come outside with her and sit in this old bench in the sun and visit. One of the last photos taken of my grandma she was actually sitting out front of the house, on this very bench.
As you can see when I finally had the chance to tackle it this bench was a LONG way from red anymore! It was also covered in moss, dirt and only the universe knows what anymore! The front two boards had broken/rotted off but after a thorough investigation the majority of the bench was amazingly sturdy. I went out to the barn and, low and behold, there was a whole pile of boards cut to this exact length so I grabbed two and brought them back to use as replacement slats. I didn’t want to lose the charm of this bench, I could have tried to strip it and make it look new again etc. But there was a lot of character here that I didn’t want to lose or replace so I just grabbed some steel wool and started scrubbing. The majority of the moss and dirt came right off along with even more red paint.
I wondered, what can I do now with all this bare old wood showing through the red paint? I also needed to find a way to make the “new” slats I added match the rest of the bench. (The new slats were the color of the deck if you’re wondering just how “different” they were to the rest of the wood on the bench.) For the bench makeover I decided the best thing to do would be to just stain the entire bench. So I grabbed some leftover Walnut stain by Minwax and went to town, covering the whole thing with a towel, rubbing it in to every crevice and every place the bare wood was showing.
As you can see the bench is far from “new” looking. It is still my Grandma’s old red bench and I love that 🙂 I even left a good majority of the moss. It will be with us and in my family now for many more years and I took my coffee and a blanket out on the deck this morning just to enjoy it like I know my Grandma would have.
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